The Father (2020)

Watches are more reliable than memories

 

The Father takes a brave approach to the question of aging. Florian Zeller, director and co-writer, tells the story from the point of view of Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) who is obviously not in full control of his mental faculties.

via GIPHY

To put in another way the reality in the story is warped. There is a touch of incoherence which makes it hard to follow emotionally. The audience is supposed to be in the headspace of a senile old man who can’t even remember where he is, who his daughters are, who his son in laws are. 

 

The calming effect of a watch

 

Anthony's obsession with his watch is the first sign of losing control. There’s a safety blanket quality to his obsession, assuming the watch is working properly, it is the one correct information he would have. 

It calms his nerves, after that I don’t know what else to think of it. So what if it’s 8 am? What else could he do after knowing the time?

For most of the movie I am busy trying to make heads or tails of the world, like Anthony. Any fears than can be derived from the obvious decline of control is buried under confusion. Pity is also not as viable as you would think.

Anthony Hopkins and subsequently his character, is not a pitiful old man, he is actually powerful looking man of 80 plus years old. Sir Anthony Hopkins won best actor for this role in The Father, so you know he's the peak of health, physically and mentally, considering the age. 

It takes effort to diminish the stature of a knighted person I suppose, and all efforts were timed to blow up by the end. 

 

Is she..?

  

Likewise, I cannot sync myself with the daughter’s headspace because I don’t know who Anne is. Anne could be the daughter who just ran off to France whom we never get to see try to make things with her father work. She’s been trying to get nurses, but this Anne isn’t going to France.

There’s an Anne who’s been visiting her father everyday, which means in part that Anthony still has some sort of independence, his own flat. And there’s an Anne who has been balancing the needs of a father to having her own life.

Usually in stories of degenerative conditions like cancer in Miss You Already or AIDS in Philadelphia, the first part of the story goes off by establishing who the main character is in full health. You get to love them first. As the story progresses you endure the loss of Milly or Andrew Beckett slowly as their fellow characters would.

I will outlive you, Anthony says to Daughter 1

What chickens are you talking about, shouts Daughter 2 in frustration

  

Loss requires me having full appreciation of who father and daughter were to each other. There’s the obvious loss of connection between father and daughter. There’s pain in Anne’s eyes that her efforts with her father falls on deaf ears. But no back story. I am as unconnected as Anthony.

The big emotional punch comes when the reality sets it. Anthony doesn’t have a house and a daughter taking care of him every minute. He doesn’t even have reality so he cries out, not for his daughter, but for his mother. 

 

Why is it that crying out for mommy is considered only what a baby will do? 

 

via GIPHY

When Anthony did cry out for mommy in this scene, it didn’t hit me as ‘jeez this man is really sick in the head’. My take away is that he is extremely alone, broken, and when you have nobody else nothing beats the caring hand of a mother.